


Caen

by tigerlady (shetiger)



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M, First Time, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-12
Updated: 2011-07-12
Packaged: 2017-10-21 08:10:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/222952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shetiger/pseuds/tigerlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After leaving Will and Magnus at the hospital, Kate and Declan are in search of a night's rest--and maybe a little peace of mind. (Episode tag for Carentan.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caen

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to kageygirl for betaing. Caen, Wiki tells me, is a middling-sized commune (city) in France, not far from Carentan, with the requisite hospital and hotels for this story.
> 
> Reference to canon character death.

"I'm sorry, Monseiur, but it _is_ the middle of the tourist season. That we have even one room available is very fortunate."

After everything they've been through today, the stonewalling and worry and the adrenaline of just barely averting the airstrike, finding Magnus and Will alive and Ravi...not, it's ridiculous that _this_ is what makes the edges of his vision go red. Ridiculous, and petty, and he clenches his jaw against the need to lash out at the otherwise helpful nightclerk as she frowns sympathetically from behind the ebony counter.

"Well, then," he says, forcing out the politest tone he can manage. "I guess we'll just go somewhere else."

Kate lays her hand on his shoulder. "Declan, it's fine."

It takes him a moment to understand her meaning. It's not until she nods towards the clerk that he gets it. "Are you sure? There's another hotel just down the block."

"Dude, I am not putting another foot forward that I don't have to." Her lips twitch upwards on the right, not quite managing to pull a smile out from under the weight of her exhaustion. She's still as beautiful as always, if a bit mussed, but now that he's really looking at her, the dark circles under her eyes and the tight lines across her forehead are a neon sign saying _hey, jackass, I've been up for days_. "It's not like I've never shared before. Though, gotta say, never in a place this swanky."

He snorts at the appraising once-over she gives the lobby, then turns back to the clerk. "We'll take it, then. Make sure to send up a roll-away."

The look that crosses her face says all he needs to hear. "You're joking. No roll-aways?"

"As I said, it is the middle of the tourist season," she starts.

"It's fine," Kate says, more emphatically this time. The nightclerk starts going about the business of checking them in, obviously not wanting to risk running into any more roadblocks, but all Declan can do is stare at Kate. She shrugs, then swipes the first key card off of the counter before bending to pick up her bag. She saunters off towards the elevator while he's still waiting for the clerk to finish up their business.

"Just kick me if I snore," Kate calls over her shoulder.

Declan groans, and manages to ignore the nightclerk's curious eyebrow in favor of picking up a pen.

*****

The room is large, appropriately well-appointed considering the amount of dosh he laid out for it, but unfortunately, there's just the one bed. A generously wide bed--but not nearly wide enough. No couch, either, for all that there's room for one. Declan tries to tell himself he's spent many a night snuggled up close to a teammate, staving off cold and fear, but the voice in his head isn't even a whisper as it reminds him that none of those mates ever made his blood thrill like Kate does.

"Bloody unprofessional bastard," he mutters to himself, but it doesn't help.

Kate's bag sits opened on the edge of the bed, and the sound of the shower singing away in the en suite leaves little doubt as to where she's disappeared to. Declan considers climbing into bed in hopes that he'll already be asleep by the time she's out. But tired as he is, he knows the shades won't fall as easily as that. Instead, he pulls out his laptop. Best to start documenting the events of the past day while they're still fresh in his head.

The desk is wide, at a perfect height to work; the chair comfortable. But neither does anything to encourage the first sentence to appear on the screen. His fingers hover above the keyboard, thumbs tapping an arrhythmic beat below the space bar. There'd been no reason not to send Ravi. He was a head of house, a man with both the experience and authority to look into the situation. He was in the area; the situation seemed to warrant a swift investigation. If Declan hadn't told him to go ahead, the planet very well might not exist right now.

The rub of it all is that no matter how Declan turns it over in his head, he can't come up with a scenario that ends any better. His gut keeps telling him he should have told Ravi to wait and gone in himself instead--but Will told them a bit about the years of research Ravi'd carried out, and Declan can't kid himself. He can keep up with the fundamentals of physics quite well on his own, better when he has someone to explain the parts he misses, but research is not his strength. Ravi was the better man for the job, no matter how many shoulds Declan trots out.

What he should have done, he finally decides, is ordered a litre of Scotch along with this room.

"I hope like hell that's porn you're staring at," Kate says. Declan jerks his head up, but it takes a few seconds to blink back to the present. When the sight of her penetrates, it sends him right back to the land of befuddlement. She's got her hair wrapped up in a towel piled on top of her head, and she's wearing an overlarge T-shirt that skirts the top of her thighs. Below that, all he's aware of is long stretches of bare leg.

"Pardon?" he finally asks, when he remembers she said something.

Kate snorts, and walks over to the desk. "I'm just saying, anything that's got you that intense right now had better be porn, because I can't take any more adventure tonight. This morning. Whenever."

She reaches out, across his chest, to spin the laptop towards her. She smells like lavender. Declan wonders if it's from something she brought with her, or from the hotel's toiletries. He's never particularly liked lavender, but on her it smells soothing. Peaceful, like cool sheets and a warm duvet.

"Oh, yeah. That is one smokin' hot mama."

Her words have him looking back to the computer, even though he knows that the blinking cursor is the only thing remotely interesting on the screen. It's a good reminder, though, of what he should be focusing on. "You should get some rest," he says, manfully ignoring the way her hip presses into his side as she tabs through his browser windows. "I'm going to head back to the hospital, see if Magnus has woken up."

Kate straightens at that. "Seriously? Are you that afraid to share a bed with me?"

Declan shakes his head and hopes he's as good of an actor as his grandmum always said. "Of course not. But you've been up for, what, going on thirty hours now? It's no skin off my nose to check in on them."

Kate rolls her eyes. "Right. Because I totally believe you didn't stay up last night, calling everyone you could, trying to figure out what was going on with Carentan before you brought Magnus in."

Declan sighs. That's another tick in the 'should' column, one whose outcome isn't so clear in his head. If he'd brought Magnus in earlier, maybe it would have made a difference. Maybe it wouldn't have. There's just no way of knowing for sure.

"See, you're drifting on me again. Go on, go get cleaned up. I'll save you plenty of room." She nudges his shoulder. "Besides. You totally don't want to get Will's mama bear instincts going again, do you?"

Declan snorts. "I thought he was going to take my head off for suggesting we wake her."

"Yeah, well, it was a lot longer than a couple hours for them." Kate nudges him again, harder this time, and Declan uses it as the prod he needs to get himself out of the chair and moving towards his kit. "Oh, and hey. If you run out of hot water? Totally not my fault."

*****

The only light in the room when he returns comes from the glow of his laptop screen, angled towards the bed so he can easily walk without bumping into anything. Kate's curled on her side, one hand up under her chin. He wants to take a moment just to look at her without the chance of being noticed, but that veers beyond unprofessional and into slightly disturbing territory. Instead, he crosses to the other side of the bed and slips under the duvet, lying on his side so he's facing away from Kate.

He closes his eyes--but he doesn't even feel tired anymore.

He's not sure how long he lays there, trying to avoid thoughts of Ravi, of Kate, trying to sleep, trying to keep still as to not disturb her slumber, before he finally rolls over, simply for a precious few seconds of peace from all the voices in his head.

Kate rolls over before he's even relaxed into the embrace of the pillow, her eyes open and searching. They stare at each other for maybe thirty seconds, the multi-colored light show from the screen saver sliding across her face, before she takes a deep breath and lets it out with a long sigh. "You're blaming yourself for Ravi, aren't you?"

Declan sighs. "Would you believe me if I said no?"

Kate's smile is everything about her that draws him in. It's a beautiful smile, yes, but it's not without pain and secrets. "No, but I'd give you points for trying."

He lets out a huff of a laugh, then rolls over onto his back. The ceiling is ghosted with shadows, the perfect audience for his words. "I can't question the decision to send him in. I've gone over it again and again, and I made the best choice I could have done." He shakes his head. "It's everything that came after that I wonder about."

"You had even less control over that part."

"I know, but--" He frowns at a particularly long shadow that reminds him of the commander of the mysterious soldiers that had plagued them at Carentan. "If we'd gotten the airstrike called off sooner, we'd have gotten to them faster. Maybe in time to stop Ravi from bleeding out."

"Or maybe we didn't manage to stop the airstrike at all, and they **all** wound up dead instead." There's a whisper of fabric as Kate shifts against the sheets. "And there's no way of knowing whether we could have made a difference, anyway. Ravi might have been dead before the field dissipated."

He's silent for a moment, trying to figure out how to get across the dread underlying his questioning. "When would it have made a difference, do you think? If we'd gotten to them minutes before? An hour before? He'd have still come out of the whole thing an old man."

Kate sighs. "You know what I keep thinking about?"

Declan rolls back to his side to face her. "What?"

Her tongue darts out to wet her lips. "What Will said. About how he thought Ravi jumped in front of that bullet because he was ready to die."

Declan wants to close his eyes, but he doesn't. He has that much bravery, at least. "I know. He lost everything, twice over. It drives me mad that he had to go through that."

Kate shakes her head. "No. I mean, yeah, I'm sure he was grieving, and that probably made it easier for him to do what he did. But he had a full life, Declan. From what Will said, he had a **good** life."

He lies there for a moment, breathing against the truth in what she's said. Part of him wants to reject it; it's far too easy. Declan can't imagine, if the situation were reversed, not being angry at what he'd lost. But the truth, the real truth down at the heart of it, is that there's no way for him to know.

"Has anyone ever told you you're brilliant?" he says at last.

Kate grins at him, teeth bright in the dark. "Not often enough, that's for damn sure."

"Well, remind me, and I'll make a point of it. Because you are."

Her grin softens to a smile, and he finds himself getting lost again, staring at her, but he can't seem to find the strength to look away.

"Did you know him well?" she asks after the moment has stretched to its breaking point. "Ravi?"

"Not well enough, really." There had never been enough time for more than quick dinners at conferences and networked calls that were almost entirely business. "We were both made seconds of our Houses about the same time. Got to be friendly that way. He was a good chap."

Kate nods. "I liked him. A lot." She snorts, then smiles. "Kinda thought maybe I liked him more than a lot. For all of about sixty seconds, anyway."

Declan raises an eyebrow. "What'd he do to lose your interest that quickly?"

She shakes her head. "Nothing, really. I just realized that he wasn't my type."

"Is that so?" They're edging into dangerous waters, away from remembering a colleague and on to personal matters, but Declan can't bring himself to care. "What's your type, then?"

Kate's teeth roll over her bottom lip, her gaze darting down away from his before she looks back up again. "Oh, you know. I'm more into the action kind of guy."

He tries not to read anything into that, though his pulse jumps anyway. "I can see that. A woman like you needs someone who can keep up with her."

"A woman like me?" Her eyes narrow playfully. "Is that a compliment?"

He arches an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

Her breath hitches. "I think it's not nice to leave a girl guessing."

"Well, then," he says, leaning just a bit closer. Somehow, in the course of talking, they've closed the distance between them. Kate's head rests on the very edge of her pillow, and his is propped on his hand as he practically looms over her. "It's very much a compliment."

"Good enough," she says. He should move back, he thinks, at least make an attempt at the appearance of propriety. But then Kate's reaching up, curling her hand around the back of his neck, and he's kissing her with no thoughts to propriety at all. Kate moans into his mouth, a satisfied little 'mmm' of a noise that has his cock coming to attention.

He pulls back, to give himself a little breathing room as well as to make sure they're both on the same page. Kate's eyes are dark, heavy-lidded, and her lips are wet and red from the kissing. Declan wants to rub his thumb over her lower lip. Wants to run his hand through her still-damp hair. But he waits for her move, knowing that he'll follow her lead here just as he did earlier in the field.

Her mouth pulls up on one side into a not-quite smile. "You know what goes a really long way towards making a crappy day better?"

"Do tell."

Kate's eyes nearly scorch him. "Dirty, sweaty sex with a smokin' hot guy."

His heart hammers triple-time and his cock hardens fully, but somehow he manages to keep a straight face. "Is that so? You know where I might pick one up on short notice, then?"

Her eyes go wide--and then she laughs, looking open and happy for the first time he's seen her this trip. He wraps an arm around her waist and tugs until she rolls on top of him, still giggling as she settles her thighs over his hips. Declan sucks in a breath as her heat presses down on his cock. Her laughter stills, her face goes intent, and then she purposefully rocks her hips. He drops his hands to her thighs. Her skin feels burning hot as he inches his fingers up under the hem of her T-shirt. He's perversely relieved to discover that yes, she is wearing pants, little lacy boy shorts by the feel of them.

Kate stretches out on top of him, and he pulls her forward, hands cupped around her ass. She kisses him with abandon, deep and sloppy and wet, and Declan finds himself wanting even more. He's desperate for her. Her heavy, damp hair falls over her left shoulder, brushing against his cheek, his neck, surrounding him with the smell of lavender.

"Come on, let's get this thing off of you," she says, plucking at his sleep shirt. "Do you always wear this much to bed, or was this all for my honor?"

"I'm wearing exactly the same amount you're wearing," he protests, ignoring the second part of her question completely. He gives her body-hugging shirt a more thorough inspection than he indulged in before. It's a bit thin in spots, barely offering any modesty for her dark, peaked nipples. "Though I do admit, you make the style look far more fetching."

"Yeah, well, work on fetching this off." She drags his shirt upwards, and he curls up so she can pull it up and off. She strips her own shirt off without ceremony, and then they're skin to skin, her breasts pressing against his chest. He runs his hands over her back, just wanting to feel as much of her skin as possible, as they kiss some more. It isn't long before they're grinding together, the head of his cock practically already inside her, only separated by the wet cloth of their pants.

"Mmm, yeah," Kate murmurs, rocking against him. She slowly opens her eyes and stills her hips. "Hold onto this thought, 'k?"

Declan swallows hard to find his voice. "It's the only thing on my mind, believe me."

She pushes herself off of him and out of the bed in a quick, graceful move, then slips her fingers under the waistband of his boxers and snaps the elastic. "These better be gone by the time I get back."

Declan watches as she circles the bed. Everything about the way she moves screams _Kate_ to him: the confident sway of her hips, the way she practically stalks to her bag, the quick, almost bashful glance over her shoulder before she bends over. God, she's got a gorgeous arse.

She straightens, and Declan realizes he hasn't kept his part of the bargain. He strips off his boxers and tosses them somewhere in the direction his shirt had disappeared to. He looks back just in time to see Kate shimmy out of her panties. She tosses him the package that was the object of her search, and his fingers are just smart enough to prise it open and roll the condom onto his dick.

"Good boy," Kate purrs--and then she swings a leg over him, lines him up, and sits back, taking him in without any preamble. His breath rushes out of him; it's so good, too fast, and he watches her face with some concern. Her eyes are closed and there's a wrinkle of tension crinkling her brow, but after a moment she smiles and opens her eyes. "Mmm, yeah. Love that burn."

"That why you're in such a hurry?" he asks. Kate starts to lean forward, but he clamps his fingers around her hips. "Give me a sec, luv. I want to make it good for you."

"Oh, believe me, it's good already." On that, he has to agree. Her hips are rolling in slow, possibly unconscious circles, working his cock in a way that makes Declan want to close his eyes and let her take whatever she wants. But she asked for dirty, sweaty sex, and he himself wants more than a fast orgasm. He _needs_ something to take him out of his head and keep him out, a ride that'll wear him down so that once he closes his eyes, he'll actually sleep.

"Let me take point on this one," he says, watching her face as he reaches up to stroke his fingers down the hollow of her throat. Her hips haven't stopped shifting, but she gives him a slight nod of acquiescence. He brings both hands to her breasts, pleased when her lips part with silent pleasure. He rubs his thumbs over her hard nipples, taking in her slight shudder in response. "What do you like, Kate? You like to be touched gently? Or you want it hard, like you like everything else?"

"It's all good," she says, pressing her palms against the backs of his hands. "Just touch me, damn it."

He does. Declan gives himself over to every prurient thought he's ever had about her, enveloping the fullness of her breasts with the breadth of his hands, then pulling back to flick mercilessly at her left nipple. When she's openly panting, he sits up, finally taking her breast in his mouth, flattening his tongue over her sensitized nipple. He can feel her moan all the way down in his dick. He indulges himself a little bit longer, and then drops back down to the bed.

Before she can protest or take control again, he traces his fingers down her sternum, over her belly, through the neat strip of hair parted around his cock. He slicks himself with her wetness, then presses up, finding her clit. Kate stops rolling her hips and starts rocking instead, making it so very hard not to move to meet her thrusts. Instead, he pulls in harsh breaths through his nose and concentrates on getting Kate off. She starts murmuring as she gets close, little whispered words of what sound like encouragement. Maybe even praise. Her muscles start to clench around him, and then she drops her head back and lets out a long, continuous moan as she comes.

Declan barely hangs on.

"Mmm," she says at last, languidly lifting her head. "Yeah, okay. You win."

He huffs a pleased laugh. "I didn't realize it was a contest."

Kate laughs, too. Declan smiles up at her, then sets his hands on her hips, more than ready for another match. But she pushes up, out of his grip and off of his cock, and swings her leg over him so she can tumble down onto the middle of the bed.

Declan blinks. "Wait. How is this me winning?"

Kate rolls her eyes, then rolls to her stomach. She pulls her leg up to the side, way up high, giving him a very clear picture of what she has in mind. She looks over her shoulder, flicking her hair out of her face with a quick jerk of her head. "Like this," she says. "As fast and as hard as you want."

Declan's not really that guy, usually preferring a slow, inevitable build to jackhammering his way through a fuck. But as he slides into her, Kate shoving her ass back against his pelvis to take him as deeply as possible, he can tell 'slow' isn't going to factor into their little exercise. He runs his hand over her belly, then grips her far hip, hitching her close as he gets his knees under him.

He thrusts hard, and as deep as he can in this position, her walls holding him snug. Kate lets out a keening moan, and he has to do it again.

"God, you feel good," she pants out. _I was gonna say the same, luv,_ is what's in his head, but all he's capable getting out is a grunt of agreement. Kate slips a hand down to touch herself, raising the other to brace herself against the fancy padded headboard. Her body bounces with his thrusts, so much he'd be driving her away from him if she wasn't pushing back.

"Oh, fuck. Yeah, Declan, come on." Her hand's a blur between her legs, and this time, when she goes over the edge, she takes him with her. He pushes in hard, his whole body straining for the peak. He shudders through the last of his orgasm, hand slipping off her shoulder at the last and sending him tumbling forward before he catches himself.

"Wow," she says breathlessly. She strains backwards for a kiss that he wishes could go on forever, but one of them is going to pull something if he doesn't move soon.

"I'm just going to--" He flaps his hand in the direction of the WC, then manages to pull out and clamber off of the bed without making a complete fool of himself. He's a bit out of practice at this sort of thing, he thinks while taking care of the condom, and again when he returns to the bed. Kate's rolled fully onto her side, facing away from him, and his stomach dips with the certainty that the only thing that's going to be between them from now on is awkwardness.

Declan pulls the duvet up from the bottom of the bed, then slips under it, settling on his back. It strikes him that it was hardly any time ago at all that he was lying in this very spot, holding himself still with dread and worry.

He'd call it fate, if he didn't hate that word so bloody much.

The mattress dips slightly, in response to Kate shifting around. Declan's about to roll over himself, give her a little privacy, when Kate lifts his arm and presses herself into his side, head resting on his chest.

"Do you mind?" she asks quietly, her voice uncertain like it gets sometimes.

"No, luv," he says, smiling into the dark. "I don't mind at all."

 

END


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